Health-care professionals, such as doctors, nurses and blood technicians face a wide variety of potentially dangerous situations resulting from their chosen profession. One of the most serious, and most prevalent is the danger from being accidentally punctured from a hypodermic syringe. All of the health-care professionals listed above, as well as others, face this danger, due to the fact that they all, at one time or another, have to use a hypodermic syringe on a patient.
The danger is not so much seen in the damage caused to a person's skin when they are punctured, but rather what is potentially being transferred into their bodies via their bloodstream from a syringe that has been previously used on a patient suffering from some sort of infection. Of course, there are some infections that pose little or no risk, but there are others, such as a serious blood infection and even HIV/AIDS, which is commonly known to imminently cause death.
For a long time, many hypodermic syringe companies tried to downplay the dangers of working with syringes. While it is true that many more people are punctured who do not become infected than there are those who do become infected; when you are dealing with a disease such as AIDS, where there is no cure and death is imminent, even one infection as a result of accidental puncturing is too many.
Some hypodermic syringe companies have attempted to solve this problem by creating syringes with shields or other safety devices. Unfortunately, in addition to often being clumsy and difficult to work with, these shields are frequently ineffective in actually preventing accidental punctures. If there were some design available that could provide true protection against accidental puncturing, while not altering the look and/or feel of a typical syringe, it would be a great benefit for many people.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention however, the following U.S. patents are considered related:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTOR ISSUED ______________________________________ 5,947,933 Reichenbach 7 September 1999 5,899,883 Chern 3 May 1999 5,713,871 Stock 3 February 1998 5,348,544 Sweeney 20 September 1994 4,834,716 Ogle II 30 May 1989 ______________________________________
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,933 discloses a hypodermic syringe assembly provided with a syringe barrel and a safety shield telescoped over the syringe barrel and movable from a proximal position to a distal position. The safety shield is irreversibly lockable in the distal position on the syringe barrel to protectively shield a used needle cannula. The safety shield is releasably retained in a proximal position by engagement of a protrusion on the barrel and a groove on the shield. Engagement between the protrusion and the stop block can be overcome by rotating the safety shield. The safety shield may then be moved into an irreversible shielding position surrounding the needle cannula. The releasable retention of the safety shield in its proximal position prevents inadvertent distal movement of the safety shield.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,883 patent discloses a safety syringe includes a tubular barrel having a bottom formed with an opening and a top formed with a neck portion, a plunger configured to be slidably fitted in the barrel and provided with a rubber piston at an inner end thereof and a thumb plate at an outer end thereof. A cylindrical connector is also included having a bottom formed with a flange, a first annular projection above the flange, and a second annular projection above the first annular projection, and a needle including a tubular pin and a conical base at a lower end of the tubular pin.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,871 discloses a hypodermic needle having a rigid, clear, protective sleeve encircling the perimeter of the barrel of the hypodermic needle. Connected to the plunger of the hypodermic needle is the protective sleeve which is drawn toward the bevel of the hypodermic needle as the plunger is depressed. Additionally, the hypodermic needle includes a locking device that locks the protective sleeve in place once the plunger is fully depressed and the injection is complete. Thus, preventing reuse of the hypodermic needle and reducing the chance of accidental contact with the bevel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,544 discloses a safety shield for a medical implement having a needle cannula. The safety shield includes a guard that is slidably movable along the needle cannula from a proximal position where the tip of the needle cannula is exposed to a distal position where the tip of the needle cannula is safety shielded. A hinged arm connects the guard to a hub of the needle cannula or to the medical implement with which the needle cannula is used. The hinged arm can be collapsed upon itself, such that the guard is adjacent the hub of the needle cannula. Alternatively, the hinged arm can be extended to cause the guard to move distally along the needle cannula and into a position for shielding the tip of the needle cannula.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,716 discloses a protective device for enclosing the scarf of a cannula that is carried by a boss while permitting access to the scarf by a port of a Y-site which is located into proximity to an adjoining length of flexible tubing, thus forming part of an intravenous administration set. The protective device has a cylindrical sheath surrounding the cannula, and the ends of the cylindrical portion have at least one cutout which snugly receives the flexible tubing.
For background purposes and as indicative of the art to which the invention relates, reference may be made to the following remaining patents found in the search:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTOR ISSUED ______________________________________ 5,938,641 Villanueva 17 August 1999 5,891,092 Castellano 6 April 1999 5,885,256 Chern 23 March 1999 5,876,382 Erickson 2 March 1999 ______________________________________